Page:The Folk-Lore Journal Volume 5 1887.djvu/305

Rh by a rapid movement, comes up with her; he is then rewarded with a shy, but kindly glance; no more concealment is necessary, the couple take a few turns up and down, and wind up by dancing the Sevillana (or a similar dance) together.

Gipsy dances belong more especially to the southern part of Spain. Many have conjectured that the gipsies came originally from Hindostan. In this, the only gipsy dance we witnessed, the movements of the girl who performed were exactly like those familiar to us in the pictures of the nautch girl of the plains of India; neither in Spain, India, or Algeria does the dancer move out of a space of about one yard square; in all these cases the motion is confined mainly to the upper part of the body, to which a writhing and undulating movement is given; the arms, too, are thrown about in graceful positions; the feet scarcely move at all.

For the sake of comparing still further the dances of the East and West, we will quote the following account of a Burmese dance, given by Dr. Clement Williams in his journal relating to an expedition which he made in 1863 through Burraah to Western China. He says:—"The performance which I witnessed at Bamó began by a song in chorus given by the whole strength of the orchestra; their instruments consisted of cymbals, drums, and gongs. The cymbal-player filled well both the eye and the ear, accompanying his instrument with a fine full voice, and having each verse as he finished repeated by the chorus. He was a lithe, active young fellow, and threw himself in concert with the swells and falls of his song into endless attitudes and summersaults, never ceasing the well-timed accompaniment of his discs. The rapidity and grace with which he played them over and under his shoulders, backwards and forwards through his thighs, and yet springing and dancing all the time, was worthy of the highest praise."

Bamó, a place on the Chinese frontier, and the south of Spain, are a considerable distance from each other; but yet, when in Seville in 1884, we twice saw a dance performed similar to the one described above by Dr. Clement Williams, and which he witnessed in Burmah.

In Spain this dance was given by the members of a society numbering about thirty persons; they style their society "La